Is Modern India Ignoring Her Spiritual Strengths?

[Guest guest]

(February 05, 2007): Today there is a sense of deep satisfaction, of

gloating even, in India. The economy is booming, there are more and

more cars on the roads, shares are soaring, a plane is taking off

every six seconds, hotels are full, shops do roaring business.

 

It looks as if India has moved from tamas to rajas, and has come out

of its slough of depression and inertia of the last so many

centuries, which was characterised by lack of self-esteem,

confidence and dynamism.

 

Today, we see a much more dynamic and self-confident India,

galvanised by the liberalisation taking place at this very moment.

 

But if one looks closer at what is happening here, one is bound to

feel a little unsettled. For what we see today is an India veering

blindly, without restraint, towards total globalisation and

Westernisation.

 

Yes, there are great values in the Western world: Freedom,

democracy, equality (not always though), respect for the

environment, less corruption. And India must, and has already

borrowed from these qualities.

 

But since the last two, three years, it seems the Indian political

and intellectual mind is pushing these qualities to an illogical

extreme, as if it wants to prove to the West that 'we are as

democratic, as liberal, as free as you are.'

 

Thus, democracy in India has been hijacked. It takes a fortune to be

elected. Politicians, elected by and for the people, once they are

locked in the ivory tower that is Delhi, forget all about the people.

 

[...]

 

This process of copying the West to the point of aping it has, of

course, already happened many times in the developing world. And it

killed the soul of many countries, making them just another replica

of the West -- with a youth that wears the latest Calvin Klein

jeans, knows the No 1 bestseller on the Time list, can quote a few

lines from Dante, reads The Times of India, but knows nothing about

pranayama, has never read a verse from Kalidasa and does not know

who Sri Aurobindo is.

 

The Westernisation of India must not be at the cost of her culture

and spirituality. Yet, there are signs that it is already happening

here.

 

You may notice in the Indian media, that there is a witch hunt

against gurus, a deriding and mocking of Indian spirituality, a

marginalising of Hinduism and Hindus, who constitute the immense

majority in India and are a billion worldwide, one of the most law-

abiding, religious, educated, affluent communities in the world.

 

More and more, Indian television particularly, but also newspapers

and magazines, are casting a look on India that is not only very

critical (if you open any newspaper nowadays, you can only end up

depressed), but which in its very nature is a Western look -- which

judges India according to Western standards.

 

But these Western standards do not necessarily apply to this

country, which has a different psyche, different culture and

different standards.

 

Why not judge India according to Indian wisdom, which is much more

ancient than Western democracy and philosophy?

 

More importantly, some Indians are more and more divided. Instead of

feeling first Indians, they feel they are first Muslims and then

Indians, first Dalits and then Indians, first Christian and then

Indians. This is a dangerous trend and it spells the death of the

minimum unified nationalistic pride that can take a country forward.

 

Instead, Indians today take pride in melting abroad, or adopting

a 'secular' creed, which basically makes them soul-less and identity-

less, however brilliantly they ape the West.

 

What is it that which India is fast losing as you read this article?

 

Its culture, firstly.

 

Entire patches in the northeast are being converted to Christianity.

Tribals are told by missionaries that it is sinful to enter a

temple, women are asked not to wear bindis, children are taught to

look down on their culture as animist or heathen.

 

Its communal harmony, secondly.

 

Whatever the shocks of invasions, there was always a certain

syncretism in Jain, Sikh, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim

communities. The ordinary Muslim in Kashmir or the Christian in

Kerala, even if he thought that his or her god was the only true

one, had a certain understanding and acceptance of the age-old

Indian culture. Reverence for women, respecting others' festivals

and customs, harmony with one's neighbours were hallmark traits.

 

Today, even the Sikh community feels it wants to separate from its

Hindu brothers and Christian and Muslims are encouraged to look down

upon Hindus.

 

As a foreigner who loves India, I feel that this blind copying of

the West's ignorant and doubting mind, the aping of whatever is has

proved wrong in the West -- wild consumerism, or savage capitalism --

will be a tragedy for India.

 

And what is India's soul? The knowledge that there is life beyond

life, the understanding of the different planes above the mind, the

ancient wisdom on reincarnation, karma, maya.

 

And above all, the acceptance that god manifests himself at

different times under different names and that god is one in his

infinite diversity.

 

This knowledge, which once roamed the shores of the world from Egypt

to China, is today lost everywhere. Yet it is the knowledge that

humanity needs for the 21st century if it does not want to go

towards catastrophe as it is now, with the world's two major so-

called monotheistic religions still believing that only their god is

the true one and that it is their duty to convert 'pagans.'

 

India must thus achieve its liberalisation and industrialisation, by

taking the best of the West, but preserving what is good, pure, wise

in her own culture.

 

On a material level, for instance, there should be a revival of

authentic Indian traditional forms, such as ancient medical systems

like Ayurveda, or Siddha, instead of the total dependence on Western

antibiotics.

 

And what about Indian yogic sciences? Pranayama, for instance, is

the most exacting, precise, mathematical, powerful breathing

discipline one can dream of. It is also true of hatha yoga, a 3,500-

year-old technique, which has inspired all kind of aerobic, so-

called yoga techniques and gymnastic drills around the world.

 

Meditation is also India's gift to the world. The art of relaxing

the mind and cooling the nervous system, using simple methods such

as observing the breath, or repeating one's god's name.

 

If these three disciplines were taught in a secular, scientific

manner to all Indian children in school, not only it would unify

them in the same knowledge, but it would provide them wonderful

tools of intuition, endurance and peace of mind, which they could

use all throughout their life.

 

But what we see today instead in India are IIMs or IITs churning out

scores of Western clones good for export -- the greatest cause of

the intellectual brain drain of India.

 

And this will be India's gift to this planet during this century: to

restore to the world its true sense, to recharge humanity with the

real meaning and spirit of life.

 

India should become the spiritual leader of the world.

 

SOURCE: Rediff India Abroad

URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/05francois.htm

[Guest guest]

And here's an interesting (if pretty light-weight) counterpoint:

 

Seeking Nirvana:

Westerners look to India for spiritual

guidance

by Kim Akhtar

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1560206.cms

or

http://tinyurl.com/3cbrns

 

Recently, as I was getting ready to leave for Delhi to

attend a cousin's wedding, I received a dinner invite

from a friend in New York, where I live.

 

I sent my regrets and asked if I could bring him

something upon my return. "Please bring me back some

spirituality", he said. I also received an e-mail from a

dance company with whom I perform Flamenco in

Seville.

 

I sent another regret note. This time, a fellow dancer

asked me to get "a goddess who will help me". Neither

was joking. The fact of the matter remains that people

in the West believe that India is the home of

spirituality.

 

Westerners look to India for spiritual guidance: the

proof lies in the immense success of gurus like Deepak

Chopra, who have capitalised on the western quest for

the mystical and divine and made millions of dollars in

the process.

 

It helps that celebrities started the trend: Madonna,

Goldie Hawn, Demi Moore, Sting and Tina Turner have

all sought a slice of India's spiritual traditions.

 

Westerners, even the cognoscenti, seem to believe that

Indians are wise and more in tune with higher

consciousness than with the pursuit of worldly things.

 

Perhaps they have not visited Bollywood lately, where

everyone seems to worship the Goddess of Cash.

 

But the bottom line is that the pursuit of spirituality has

existed in India for millennia. I dare say, however, that

it took a Madonna to popularise it in the West.

 

Which brings us to the question: What ultimately is

spirituality? In the most basic sense, it is a feeling of

inner peace, an allowing of oneself to be guided by

intuition and insight rather than rational, scientific

thought.

 

All of this is the basis of most organised religions. But

perhaps, over the centuries, as organised religions went

through unrest and chaos, people simply became fed up.

 

Hence, in the unrelenting and continuous search for

succour, westerners appear to be looking to Hindu

mysticism to be the new saviour.

 

They are now seeking divine refuge in Ganesh,

Saraswati, Krishna, Lakshmi, Hanuman and other gods

on the Indian firmament.

 

Spiritual solace is all about personal growth and a union

with the divine. That is what spirituality, as pursued in

India, is all about.

 

 

 

 

, "Devi Bhakta"

<devi_bhakta wrote:

>

> [....] what we see today is an India veering

> blindly, without restraint, towards total globalisation and

> Westernisation.

> [....]

> The Westernisation of India must not be at the cost of her culture

> and spirituality. [....]

> India should become the spiritual leader

> of the world. [....]

>

> SOURCE: Rediff India Abroad

> URL: http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/feb/05francois.htm

>